2. Are you a numbers
person? History shows
us time and again that
property professionals
who are focused on
the numbers are those
who enjoy the greatest
success. This rings true
for Peter Hooymans, Ann
Rogers, Georgina Mellick,
Stephen Fitzsimon and
Tim Ear, founders of multi-
award winning agency
Melbourne Real Estate.
Story by Iolanthe Gabrie.
HARISMATIC AND with an
energy that veritably leaps
out at you, Peter Hooymans
is indeed a numbers person
in a numbers business.
“I want to measure
everything,” he says. “This goes back to my
early training with John McGrath 16 years
ago. I went to all his training, which was
about ‘measure, measure, measure’.
“For example, in the first quarter of 2016,
Melbourne Real Estate (MRE) received
3,031 rental applications. We lease 180 to
200 properties a month, which is huge.
Having a general manager (Tim Ear, also
one of the founders of the business) who is
a CPA with extraordinary metrics abilities
allows us to know what’s going on in our
business at all times.”
MRE flies a little under the radar when it
comes to the real estate industry at large,
despite having been founded in 1992 and
eventually setting up shop permanently in
South Yarra in 2004. Yet being Melbourne-
based is only half the MRE story, as this
unique business enjoys a distinctly global
identity courtesy of years spent working
with international audiences.
“Twelve years ago, Melbourne Real
Estate had humble beginnings with Peter
working and travelling internationally
on a gruelling schedule to meet and build
relationships with an international client
base,” says Office Manager Ann Rogers.
“The initial success came out of the Middle
East, followed by Asia. As the hard work
paid off, it became clear that help was
needed to expand the administration
epm.eliteagent.com.au 15
success
C
3. side of the business so Peter could focus
on what was fast becoming a large
international client base. I loved taking
on the challenge, but more importantly, l
understood his vision and was immediately
impressed by his energy, passion and
commitment to take MRE to a whole new
level. From the beginning he had a global
vision and was absolutely driven about
service standards.”
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Renting a small office space and with
very few systems or procedures in place
on day one, it was a case of humble
beginnings. But both Ann and Peter knew
they were headed for bigger things and
set their sights on growing the team.
“Our ‘founding members’ were put
through a lengthy process of interviews
and caliper testing, to ensure they were
not only aligned with our vision and work
ethic but also had the experience and
the drive to deliver exceptional service
to our clients at the level that met our
expectations and beyond. It was essential
they were the perfect addition – Pete
has always been manically driven about
delivering six-star service.”
The numbers – those all-important
measurables – tell a story of year-on-year
growth and expansion to the team of 42
innovative thinkers that MRE is today. “We
started off with about 30 properties under
management in 2005-6,” says Peter. “Then
we had a couple of projects settle and went
to 150, and then in 2008 we were at about
300. At this point I knew that in order to
maintain a reasonable rent roll growth rate,
BDMs would need to be engaged. Coming
from a sales background, I was all over that
aspect of property management; we now
have four full-time BDMs. Our rent roll
today sits at 2,172, so we’ve grown at 70 per
cent per annum since 2008.” Little wonder,
then, that MRE has a trophy cabinet full of
property management awards.
A DIVERSE ORGANISATION
Prolific growth is not all that’s interesting
about MRE, however. The organisation
itself is as diverse as the global clientele
of tenants and landlords it serves. MRE
conducts roadshows throughout Asia
several times a year, traversing China and
Malaysia, growing their brand as they go.
“Half of our rental team are bilingual
and trilingual – we even have one
amazing employee at MRE who speaks six
languages,” notes Peter proudly. “We’ve
made a conscious decision to be able
to service our clients overseas in their
language and in their time zone.”
FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
Predominantly a property management
business, MRE is also strong in the sales
game, with project and traditional sales
teams. Peter says, “As a result of our large
rent roll, and natural and annual rent roll
attrition of 10 per cent per annum, we
have the opportunity to sell 220 properties
per year. Our re-sales team transacts
approximately 10 properties per month,
selling to both our database of 18,000
buyers and the wider public.”
The two leads for projects and property
management, Georgina Mellick and
Stephen Fitzsimon, work together closely
to ensure that the end result is maximised
for all parties. Says Georgina, “Our
project origins were the platform for our
successful property management growth
and have generated over $100m in ‘off the
plan’ sales in the past 12 months, including
more than 45 sales over $1m.
“We are a boutique project marketing
company specialising in beautifully
designed apartments and townhouses to
be sold off the plan. Highly selective about
the projects we take on, collaboration
between all the project consultants, from
the architect to the interior designer
and branding and marketing agency, has
become non-negotiable. We constantly
strive for innovation with a one-eyed
determination; failure is not an option.
We finish what we start and we are proud
of what we do.”
THE MELBOURNE OUTLOOK
In the 2016 calendar year, MRE will
settle more than 200 apartments and
townhouses.
Says Stephen, “It’s pretty evident in
Melbourne that an apartment glut is
looming. With 30,000-plus apartments
being built annually, we recognise that
at some point the focus will change from
winning clients who want us to manage
their properties to securing tenants who
are spoilt for choice in the apartment
market.
“At MRE, we have made a conscious
decision to make the process of
finding and securing our apartments
significantly faster and easier. A lot has
changed from the days of handing out
keys to tenants and hoping they like the
property! At MRE we provide tenants
with a concierge service.
“Our listings on the major portals ensure
that our properties are easy to find, even
in the busiest suburb of Melbourne itself.
Every single advertisement we have used
since 2009 has engaged professional
photography to ensure they generate peak
interest – but that’s not always enough to
make it onto a tenant’s shortlist. In 2012,
we invested in 100 per cent adoption
of videos with walk-through tours;
390,000 views later we are sold on their
effectiveness in regard to showcasing
properties, and giving tenants a better
picture of the property attributes prior to
inspecting – thus ensuring that tenants
who inspect thereafter are qualified and
ready to apply.”
This approach is at the heart of Peter’s
vision for MRE. “It boils down to this,” he
says. “The philosophy of MRE is to offer
absolutely mind-blowing service and to
create raving fans. Our service philosophy
is basically doing whatever it takes to
make sure that our tenant and landlord
are a match made in heaven. Contra to the
attitude of many agencies, we focus heavily
on tenant service, as they’re the landlords
of the future.”
ATTITUDE OF EXCELLENCE
This attitude of excellence comes from
the top down, with only a select array of
individuals joining the MRE team. “It
takes five interviews to get a job here;
when we interview, applicants go through
multiple processes, including a Myers-
Briggs test and two further psychometric
tests to determine fit.
“Successful applicants are nurtured
into our culture and extensively trained.
We look after our staff, because they look
after our clients. We’ve implemented
Naomi Simson’s Redii program, which
offers our team a series of rewards every
day: if someone does something helpful,
we’ll say ‘here’s 200 points for going out
of your way to drop those keys into the
city’. Points are convertible for a variety
of rewards, from supermarket vouchers to
experiences via the Redii shop. We spend
about $7,000 each month, publically
rewarding our team for doing great
things.” It’s not hard to see why MRE’s
COVER STORY
“OUR PHILOSOPHY IS
TO OFFER ABSOLUTELY
MIND-BLOWING SERVICE
AND CREATE RAVING
FANS, DOING WHATEVER
ITTAKES TO MAKE SURE
THAT OUR TENANTAND
LANDLORD ARE A MATCH
MADE IN HEAVEN.”
16 ELITE PROPERTY MANAGER • JUN-JUL 2016
4. staff retention has been at 100 per cent
over the last 17 months.
Says General Manager Tim Ear, “Whilst
it is imperative that we attend industry-
specific conferences and training, and
stay tuned into real estate news, it’s
relatively difficult to lead, innovate and
create unique points of difference if
your only inspirations come from your
industry peers. Success leaves clues,
from Zappos, Red Balloon, Tesla Motors,
Southwest Airlines, Disney, through to
the Hawthorn Hawks AFL team – these
organisations inspire us to the world
of possibilities in regard to innovation,
change and service.”
A hallmark of MRE is their sleek
approach to property marketing: you
won’t find poorly-shot iPhone photos on
any of their listings, in sales or property
management. “Our property managers
are given a $2,500 video kit, as all our
property marketing is done using video.
Forget paper and photographs; our routine
inspections and condition reports are
recorded by our trained team before being
optimised for image quality, stability and
sound. These videos are then uploaded
to our clients’ private accounts, which
they access through the 24-7 MRE app.
Our offshore landlords love these videos,
because nothing gets lost in the mail.”
With such a large rent roll, how do they
ensure all landlords are willing to invest
in such uniformly elegant marketing for
their properties? It’s simple, says Peter.
“We don’t give our landlords a choice. Just
as we don’t give our tenants a choice when
it comes to direct debits; each of our 2,172
rental properties are direct-debited each
Friday. If the rent is not there, they are
charged a dishonour fee. And our rent roll
arrears are zero. Our vacant properties
are zero.
“We want to be the best, and that’s why
we have high standards across MRE. For
our tenants, our landlords and our team.”
LOOKING AHEAD
As innovators in culture and property
marketing, the final question we have is
what the MRE team see happening in the
future. Says Peter, “With our ambition
to execute to completeness, we built a
reputation on selling out whole projects,
creating momentum and credibility in the
boutique off-the-plan space.
“Five years ago, we wholly focused on
digitising our property management
platform, led by Todd Breen (Virtually
Incredible) and used the Google and
YouTube platforms to engage our
customers. In 2016, we are 100 per cent
video-oriented in our marketing, utilise
cloud-based real-time CRMs (Salesforce)
to meet the needs of our developers and
constantly seek innovative technology
solutions to increase our internal
efficiencies and external marketing
impact.”
Tim’s view of the future is clear.
“A higher bar in regard to customer
expectations as technology continues
to improve everyone’s ability to access
information – the world is real-time and
everyone is potentially connected. In
digital realms, client experiences
are no longer isolated; positive (and
negative) word of mouth travels wider and
faster than ever before.”
There will be more focus on tools,
strategies and initiatives that increase
customer satisfaction and client
value. In fast-moving and volatile business
conditions worldwide, one thing’s for
certain: clients who receive superior value
will ultimately remain loyal. ■
epm.eliteagent.com.au 17
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